The need and desire for personal safety is naturally ingrained in each person. Survival depends on it. But in the course of everyday life, how often do you think about your safety and security? Most of us are too busy with daily commitments to consider the risk of ending up as a victim, which is why it’s good to turn preventive steps into daily habits.

Safety Habit #1: Awareness

When your thoughts are consumed by daily routines and distractions, you might not notice the warnings signs of impending danger. For instance, if you were slowly walking down the street and looking through your day planner, would you notice a man behind you eyeing up your purse? Awareness requires focus and effort, but a habit of observing your surroundings keeps your intuitive abilities in top shape.

Safety Habit #2: Trust Your Intuition

Whenever you experience a ‘bad feeling’ about a person or situation, your body is telling you that you’re at risk of danger. Trust it, even if your mind attempts to rationalise that you’re safe.

Safety Habit #3: Risk Assessment

Assess the risks of your plans and routines to look for additional safety precautions you can take. If you work late at night, for example, have someone walk with you to reduce the risks associated with walking alone.

Safety Habit #4: Preparedness

In the even that someone attacks you, you must be prepared to handle your body’s stress response and defend yourself. Routine training helps you stay prepared at all times, because the defence movements you practise become second nature to you.

Safety Habit #5: Avoid the Victim Profile

Aim to look like a confident person on a mission, at all times, because it makes others less likely to target you. Continued awareness of your body language and communication style can help you overcome any characteristics that fit the victim profile.

Safety Habit #6: Have a Safety Plan

You may never experience a worst-case scenario in your lifetime, but if you do, it’s good to have a plan of action for overcoming it.

Safety Habit #7: Embrace Fear

Most people try to overcome fear when it strikes them for whatever reason, because it makes them feel ‘weak’ or embarrassed. Fear isn’t healthy if it controls you or produces chronic anxiety, but it can be your saviour in a dangerous situation. Safe people embrace their fear to take full advantage of the fight or flight response.

A good training will train you ways of incorporating all these habits in a regular routine that will help to keep you healthy and safe.

One should regard personal hygiene as a significant factor as it aids in preventing an individual from acquiring any illness. The oral hygiene of a person has a great impact on his entire physical health. Safe training methods will make you aware of different ways that will ensure that you are following good hygienic habits to avoid certain illness and bacterial infections that may affect you, if you are not clean.

Clothing is another aspect of safety with which people are generally not familiar with. Wearing clothes that do not fit properly or wrong kind of clothing may result into body injuries. Everyone does not have an easy access to the personal safety trainers, and hence you might not even come to know the harm that you cause to your body by wearing the wrong type of clothing. Clothing that disables, a proper flow of air increases the chances of developing infections by your body. Tight clothing cuts off the flow of oxygen to the legs and arms. Shoes not having adequate support increase the likelihood for injuries. You can get the safety training materials form a health care provider or your doctor to protect yourself from such injuries.

Diet, also plays a vital role in regards to personal safety. The drinks and food eaten by you and exercises that you do, determine the level of personal safety, to a great extent. There are some drinks as well as foods that result into body damage. You might not even be aware of the fact. The long term damages are however, not noticeable. Personal safety training can aid you in preventing disorders as a result of consuming harmful drinks and foods. At the same time, doing exercises that are quite sophisticated or indulging into heavy weight lifting may result into injury, as well. If you are a new person in this field, you can always go for safety training data from professionals for the equipment you wish to use.

Self awareness includes a number of factors. Mental health of an individual plays a vital role in terms of personal safety of that individual. If you are suffering from mental ailments or depression, it will largely influence the way you take care of your physical health. There are also other external stress factors like relationship with friends or family that have a great impact on your mental health. Healthy relationships are the ones that assist an individual to involve himself in positive deeds. Self awareness aids you in engaging in engaging yourself in such acts that decrease or do not have any risk of harm. Lessons of personal training safety educates all about these aspects.

In another of my articles, I talked about how common sense and awareness are two of the most important tools you have in your personal safety and security toolkit. While that article concentrated on staying safe in shopping mall parking lots, here are also some practical tips that you should be practicing when traveling around by car. Remember, the first step to personal safety is prevention and here are more tips to help you stay safe:

Safety Tip 1) When you are entering your neighborhood or area where you are staying, especially at night, be aware of whether someone is behind you. Are you being followed? This may sound like paranoia, but I know from FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE how important this piece of advice is and why I feel so strongly about awareness and safety. I was a victim of a robbery in MY OWN FRONT YARD because I DID NOT PAY ATTENTION TO WHO WAS BEHIND ME!!! If you see a car behind you that you are not familiar with, DO NOT STOP at your house or destination. Drive past to see whether you are really being followed. If you suspect you are, drive back out to a populated area and see whether they keep following you. Look for a fire station, a police station or somewhere else that is populated. Still being followed? Call 911 and let them know what is happening and where you are.

Safety Tip 2) Are you involved in a fender bender in a questionable or unpopulated area, particularly a minor collision where you are not at fault? Stay in your car and call 911. If it is a real accident with innocent people, they won’t mind waiting. If they look dangerous, pull away from them (but stay in the area in case it was legitimate) and call 911.

Safety Tip 3) Leaving items in your car in plain site is just an invitation to thieves. Especially if you own a convertible! Not only do you lose the item, you lose your roof too. Take valuables with you or put them in your trunk out of site.

Safety Tip 4) Do you live in a cold climate? Don’t leave your car warming up in the driveway with the doors unlocked and you inside the house. Sounds cozy, but how easy are you trying to make it for car thieves?

Safety Tip 5) Another hint for cold climates – carry an emergency blanket, a pair of snow boots and a couple of cans of SlimFast or food supplement in the trunk. Usually the best advice is to stay put if you are stranded on the side of the road in the snow. But you may want to have the snow boots if you absolutely have to get out and walk or if you just need to use the outdoor facilities…

Safety Tip 6) NEVER, EVER, leave your child in the car unattended while you run into the store. Not even to a convenience store or the dry cleaner. Seems like too much work to get them out of the car seat? Too bad. Do it now or you may regret it later. Or do your quick errands with them safely at home or with a baby sitter.

Safety Tip 7) NEVER, EVER, leave a child in the car with the windows closed in the heat. It seems a repeat of above and it kind of is, but if you accidentally get locked out and your child is still in the car with the windows closed and unable to unlock the doors, IMMEDIATELY call 911. Car interiors can get extremely hot and it doesn’t take long for your child’s body heat to rise above safe levels. It breaks my heart every time I hear of a child dying due to being left in an enclosed car in the heat.

Safety Tip 8) This is a corollary to Safety Tip 7 – don’t leave your beloved pet in the car with the windows closed in the heat. Depending on how hot it is, you may not want to even leave them in the car with the window slightly open. The opening may not be big enough to allow enough of the heat to escape.

By staying aware and prepared, you are well on your way to being in charge of your own and your family’s personal security and safety.